A Glossary of Constitutional Terms: English / Nepali

Another is the word 'deemed': for example, 'a person shall not bedeemed to hold an office of profit in the service of the republic byreason only that he is a president' means that something is treatedfor legal purposes as having a certain quality, even though thismay not in fact be the case; in this example it means that althoughthe president holds an office, and receives an income, he or sheis not to be treated as holding 'an office of profit' (which wouldhave certain constitutional consequences). A fictitious judge in thebook written in the1930s said, 'There is too much of this damneddeeming.' Unfortunately, this ridicule has had little effect.PrecisionVIPrecision in drafting, which, as Yash Ghai has said, requiresconsistency in translation, is extremely crucial. Among those wordsthat are very important are 'shall' and 'may.' 'Shall' is the correctfirst person singular or plural of the verb 'to be', which impliessimple prediction ('Tomorrow I/we shall go to the market'). Thesecond or third person equivalent is 'will' (He will go to the market).Laws speak only in the third person; if they say 'He shall…' it isan instruction. 'The government shall' means 'The governmentmust' or a little less abruptly 'the government has an obligation to.''May' implies a choice or discretion. Unfortunately, because of theimprecise use of words by some legal drafters, courts have beencompelled to decide in some cases that 'shall' means 'may' or 'may'means 'shall' !Sometimes lawyers or non-lawyers become over-enthusiastic aboutlegal language. For example, in Johannesburg Airport (I think)there is a sign that says if passengers break some rule 'they shall beA Glossary of Constitutional Terms